Me

Love

Listening to Gregory Porter brings me joy. Especially Hey Laura and Liquid Spirit. I love everything by him.

This morning I saw a video of a black man being beaten by the NYPD for sleeping on a subway. While they were trying to force him off the train he kept shouting that he was going home from work. Thankfully a woman recorded the whole incident. Thankfully she got badge numbers, though they shoved her as she got close. This is why I am angry. This is why I write. This is why I can't let it go. This is why I get angry when others tell me to.

Gratitude

I am thankful for this day
For love and compassion
For forgiveness and ease
I am thankful for grace and acceptance
I am thankful for a healthy anger
For words and art
I am thankful for my son
For the sun
For my friends and family
I am thankful for being thankful

Alice Walker: Calling Women "Guys"

Stage

Ari Robles was the feature last night at The World Stage. What a humble, peaceful and poetic soul. He's from a venue in Boyle Heights called Corazon Del Pueblo. "One nation under radiation and chem trails for all" was one of his many power lines. The evening was bliss and connected with a speech I heard Alice Walker on YouTube talk about. About the way we divide ourselves. If there is a flood in another part of the world we turn a blind eye because it's not affecting us when really, it is. Everything everywhere is always affecting us because there is no them. There is us, all of us, on this planet together. The us over here and them over there is as crazy as the non-smoking section of the plane. Remember that? Remember the smoking section used to be in the back of the place and somehow the smoke was just going to stay there? As if smoke understood or cared about a curtain or dotted line.

An acrostic poem a day for July 2014 - day 2 - Pieces of my heart

Place world
In my mirror
Erase dotted lines that separate
Create hands stretch
Earth
Space

Our winters are survived by
Fires we share

My life is
Your life how one we are

Have mercy
Eat and speak
Art and words all over the world
Reach
Touch

Gratitude

Today I give thanks for life
For waking up with functioning limbs
With a heart filled with love
I am thankful for my son
For my friends and family
I am thankful for art and words
For poetry and music
I am thankful for the peace in this moment

Profile: Alice Walker

An acrostic poem a day for July 2014 - day 1 - This work peace

Today
Heavy thoughts released
I am in this
Space

We
Owe
Rest to our minds and
Kindness to our hearts

Play
Ease
Action
Creation
Ever

Gone fishing

In honor of taking care of myself, particularly my mental health I'm letting go of some things. Letting go of some ways. I am loving myself enough to love myself. I am finding my way to the beach more often. I am drinking more water. Smiling more often. Eating more fruits. Voicing less negativity. Being more quiet. Saying less on Facebook. Seriously if weren't for Red Stories I would shut down my account for a while. For...reasons...I have to be super careful now about my mental health. I have given up Criminal Minds and Law and Order. Did I tell you? At least I'm on a break. I am also on break from Facebook (except to advertise for Red Stories). I don't want to read more threads about arguments between human beings not recognizing other human beings as human beings. I need a break. And, by the way, I'm well. I am using exercise and yoga and flowers and smiles and poetry and good good words and art and some friends and some family some some some as medication. I am breathing and writing words. And some days I will skip my blog entries, go figure. And some days I will over share and some days I will say a whole lot and not say anything at all. But it will all be mine. It will all be me.

A ballad a day for June 2014 - for day 30 - Untitled

Call me something else
Don't call me a friend
Don't lie to my face
And expect me to smile

Don't extend your hand
And pretend you play fair
Don't offer me crumbs
And then want my glee